Buffalo Field Office Plans Prescribed Burns

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Buffalo Field Office plans to conduct several prescribed burns in Campbell, Johnson, and Sheridan counties this year. The weather conditions required for the burns vary, with some requiring snow cover and others requiring dry ground conditions. BLM may initiate the burns as soon as October 30, 2006 or when favorable weather and fuel conditions exist.

Prescribed fire projects are planned on the following areas:

Burnt Hollow Management Area: BLM plans to burn slash piles resulting from various fuel reduction projects on the Burnt Hollow Management Area. The Burnt Hollow site is located about 15 miles north of Gillette, Wyoming. The prescribed fire plan for slash pile burning on the Burnt Hollow area requires snow cover and/or wet fuel conditions.

Welch Management Area: The Welch Management Area is located about 9 miles north of Sheridan, Wyoming. The prescribed burning will focus on removing slash piles resulting from salvage harvest of timber killed by a wildland fire prior to BLM’s acquisition of the property in 2005. BLM plans to conduct the slash pile burn under wet fuel conditions. However, the burn plan provides for burning under drier conditions if a fire engine and personnel are on site to keep the fire from spreading beyond to pile site.

Billy Creek Cabins Area: BLM plans to burn slash piles resulting from timber harvest and fuel reduction projects along the Billy Creek access road. The slash pile burns will occur when there is persistent snow cover on the site. The Billy Creek cabins area is located off the Hazelton Road about 25 miles south of Buffalo, Wyoming.

Eagle Trap and Graves Corrals Timber Sales: BLM plans to burn timber harvest slash piles at two sites in the Bighorn Mountains in southern Johnson County west of Kaycee, Wyoming. Wet fuel conditions and/or snow cover is required for these burns.

Firnekas Camp and Little Eagle Creek Prescribed Fires: BLM plans to conduct broadcast burns in the spring or fall of 2007 at two sites located in southwest Johnson County. The Firnekas Camp burn involves about 200 acres of sagebrush within a 400-acre burn unit. The Little Eagle Creek broadcast burn will target about 1,000 acres of shrub and mixed conifer vegetation within a 6,000-acre unit. Both of the burn sites are above 6,000 feet elevation, making a fall season burn most likely.

For more information, please contact the Steve Hannan at 307-684-1144.